


1888

by GretchenSinister



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-07
Updated: 2019-03-07
Packaged: 2019-11-13 05:42:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18025805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: Original Prompt: "so I’ve seen a few prompts about jack meeting old man winter, but i love my angst, so what if jack and winter were the same person? as in a multiple personality wayjack is kind and playful, causing light snow and pretty frost patterns,but winter, he’s the guy that causes black ice, blizzards that trap people, falling icicles.bonus points if- jack has no idea about his secondary persona- winter does something bad, and everyone blames a clueless jack- pitch sees a golden opportunity in allies- references to deadly ice related accidents in history(please oh please)"Jack thinks he first met Bunny in the 1920s. Bunny knows he saw him earlier than that. They talk about why it’s important that Jack knows that. Sort of based on Rufftoon’s comic’s timeline.





	1888

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on 8/2/2014.

“Jack, when did we first meet, face to face?” Bunny asks, one late February day as they spend some time working on making sure crocuses will grow where small children will see them first.  
  
“It was in the 1920s sometime, wasn’t it?” Jack idly calls down a few snowflakes that melt where the ground is bare. “And we almost got into a fight but couldn’t? Didn’t make sense then, but I guess it was because of our centers interacting.” Jack makes a crocus out of ice and sticks it in the ground near where the living ones are going to grow. “What were you doing trying to pick a fight with me, anyway? I mean, you’re a pompous old grouch, but I can usually figure out why you’re mad at me when you are.”  
  
Bunny doesn’t knock against his shoulder like Jack expects him to. Instead, Jack finds that Bunny looks unusually serious when he turns to him.  
  
“That’s what I was afraid you’d say,” Bunny says.  
  
“Afraid? Why?”  
  
“Because by my lights, I’d run into you a few decades earlier. What do you remember about 1888?”  
  
“Nothing in particular, I guess,” Jack says. “I know I was trying to avoid counting years at that point. Should I remember something about it?”  
  
Bunny looks off into the distance. “I’m not rightly sure how I should bring this up.”  
  
“Do you want to go back to the Warren or something? Try and relax for a little while first?”  
  
Bunny shakes his head. “No, I think we ought to be out under the open sky for this. Look, Jack. In 1888, three weeks before Easter, everything was going pretty smoothly for me. Spring was well underway, the weather only looked like it was getting milder, and then…the east coast of North America was hit with one of the worst blizzards I’ve ever seen.”  
  
“Bunny,” Jack says warily. “I’m not responsible for every blizzard. It’s not  _winter_  that’s my center.”  
  
“Not  _yours_ , maybe,” Bunny says, and Jack frowns. “But I was caught in that blizzard. I could tell a spirit was causing it. And…I saw someone who looked exactly like you. At least when they were still. When he moved, he moved like he didn’t really know or care how humans normally moved. You were pretty young to be like that, then. You still are. And yet…they looked like you. And that blizzard—there weren’t, and aren’t, many spirits who could have been where I saw you.”  
  
“There’s something else, too, isn’t there? Not like that isn’t enough. I should have remembered that.”  
  
Bunny nods. “Over four hundred people died in that blizzard. And that’s why I tried to pick a fight with you, Jack. I thought you were a malevolent spirit.”  
  
“Why tell me this?” Jack’s voice sounds hollow. “I don’t know how…I don’t know why…”  
  
“I was asking more than telling,” Bunny says. “But you needed to know if you didn’t. Winter’s not your center, but it’s someone’s. If that someone’s also in you, you need to know. You need to know what you’re capable of.”  
  
“How can I be a Guardian, knowing what I did—or—if not me, then close enough?”  
  
“The Moon changed you because of some quality in you he knew would make you a protector, someday. But,” Bunny takes a deep breath. “the quality, the strengths that make someone suited to being a Guardian, they make it easy to see things only in black and white, if you’re not careful. So you start to try to shove everything bad about you deep down where you can’t even think about it. But all that stuff is still you, and you have great power. After enough time, you can shove enough of yourself away to make a whole other person. And sometimes, the more you deny your darkness, the more things you find out about yourself that aren’t perfect, you shove those away too, until there’s almost nothing left, because no one’s really perfect. Eventually, you can stop being you at all.”  
  
“So you need to know what you did. I want you to be able to still be Jack, no matter what. And even if it doesn’t seem like it, knowing what you did as Winter will help.”  
  
Jack folds his arms, looking up at the snowfall that’s getting steadily heavier. “How do you know?”  
  
“Personally? Have to admit I’ve never seen the process. North, Tooth, and Sandy—especially Sandy—have, though. And you’ve seen the results.” Bunny flicks his ears back and forth to dislodge the gathering snow. “You’re lucky your center is fun. I expect it’s easier than, well…”  
  
“Fear,” Jack whispers.


End file.
